PREASURE AND REALSE MODEL PARS
The Pressure and Release Model is used to analyse factors which cause a population to be vulnerable to a hazard. On one side of the model we have the natural hazard itself, and on the other side different factors and processes which increase a population’s vulnerability to the hazard. This vulnerability is often rooted in social processes. These are dynamic and ever changing and are often unrelated to the hazard itself e.g. poverty, poor governance.
The progression of vulnerability is split into three sections. The root causes are often caused by economic, demographic and/or political processes, often affecting large populations or entire countries. Dynamic pressures are local economic or political factors, that can affect a community or organisation and unsafe conditions are the physical conditions that affect an individual (unsafe building, low income, poor health, etc). Therefore, the number of people affected will increase the closer the factor is to the root cause.
VUNRABILITY
● Physical Vulnerability - Individuals live in a hazard-prone area, with little protection naturally or through mitigation.
● Economic Vulnerability - People risk losing their employment, wealth or assets during a hazard. MEDCs tend to be more economically vulnerable than LEDCs.
● Social Vulnerability - Communities are unable to support their disadvantaged or most vulnerable, leaving them at risk to hazards.
● Knowledge Vulnerability - Individuals lack training or warning to know the risks of a hazard or how to safely evacuate. Alternatively, religion and beliefs may limit their understanding of hazards; hazards are an act of God, so individuals don’t mitigate or evacuate (known as fatalist belief).
● Environmental Vulnerability - A community’s risk to a hazard is increased due to high population density in the area.
A lack of infrastructure (such as poor sewage management or water supplies) can worsen the impacts of a hazard, since it is harder to maintain clean living conditions and avoid the spread of disease following a disaster. A lack of infrastructure would be a factor of unsafe living conditions.
However, the lack of infrastructure may be due to rapid urbanisation, where little planning has been taken to carefully construct houses and infrastructure to cope with the rising population; Rapid urbanisation would be the dynamic pressure.
Ultimately, planning and controlling safe population growth is the government’s responsibility. So the root cause of this disaster may be weak governance.
ROOT CAUSE
- Weak Governance
- Mismanagement by Industry, NGOs or IGOs
- High reliance on products easily affected by hazards (local agriculture near to the hazard, imports by air during a volcanic eruption
DYNAMIC PRESSURE
- lack of training/knowledge in locals - rapid urbanisation
- poor communication between government and locals - natural environment degraded (mangroves removed, rivers & channels filled with debris)
- lack of basic services (health, education, police)
UNSAFE LIVING CONDTIONS
- lack of infrastructure (clean water, sewage removal, electricity)
- dangerous location of settlements (close to nuclear stations or the natural hazard itself)
- no warning system for locals - disease and fire can easily spread between households